Syrian war jet lost near Turkish borders: state TV

Damascus, March 5 (IANS) Communication with Syrian war jet was lost while the warplane was on a reconnaissance mission near the Turkish borders on Saturday, state TV reported.

Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying that the search for the pilot is ongoing, giving no further details.

Meanwhile, the Turkish-backed Ahrar al-Sham movement said its rebels fired at a Syrian MiG-21 in Idlib near the Turkish borders.

A video posted online also purportedly showed the warplane while being shot at by Ahrar al-Sham.

Activists said that after being shot, the warplane continued to fly toward the Syrian-Turkish borders, adding that the plane may have crashed over the Turkmen Mountains in Syria’s Latakia province.

However, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said earlier that a Syrian military jet has crashed near the Turkish-Syrian border.

“There is information that a MiG modelled plane estimated to be belonging to the Syrian regime crashed in Hatay,” he said, adding that the pilot is said to have jumped from the plane, and search efforts are ongoing.